Monday, October 30

🚨 In today’s newsletter 🚨

• What happens when brands add fees for returns

• Why you should be optimistic about the future of e-commerce

• Why shoppers don’t trust social commerce

Let’s get into it👇

#1 - 📦 The downside of return fees

📰 TL;DR - We all know the trend of brands now charging return fees to customers, but what effect does that have on their business? Well, now we know. This survey from Happy Returns found that one-third of brands that charge these fees are losing customers. The exact amount of customers lost isn’t quantified, however. And obviously Happy Returns wants people to use their service, so it’s fair to take this with a gain of salt. However, as one quoted expert says, “You’re certainly not going to gain anyone because you won’t attract people to buy from you by making it more expensive for them to do so.”

💡 Insight - Whether or not you should charge a fee for returns is a very difficult question. We know that shoppers returned 16.5% of the items they bought in 2022 — that’s a lot! And that costs you money. The fees seem most established for apparel brands, which makes sense because they see the highest returns. A way to mitigate that is excellent product photography and accurate, in-depth sizing tools. If returns aren’t seriously hurting your bottom line, it makes sense not to implement fees yet. But off the opposite is true, remember that the survey also shows two-thirds of brands who charge fees said they didn’t lose customers.

➡️ You can read the article here...

#2 - 🥰 Why you should be optimistic about e-commerce

📰 TL;DR - Now for a breath of positivity. Andrew Faris, an e-comm expert, tweeted this thread about why the future of e-commerce is pretty bright. Consider the growing global net worth, the numbers showing the growth of online retail, the power of Meta, the advent of new e-commerce software… the list goes on.

💡 Insight - Like me, you’ve probably read a whole bunch of very pessimistic takes about the e-commerce market. And look, it’s not untrue, to some extent. E-commerce was like a rocket ship during the pandemic, and of course the changes spurred on by such a novel event wouldn’t last forever. And yes, it’s also true that the world of DTC is changing and there’s a lot of reasons why traditionally DTC brands are moving into wholesale. Yes, things are changing, but I agree with Andrew that on the whole things look pretty good. You need to adapt and change, but if you do, there’s still plenty of room to succeed.

➡️ You can read the thread here...

📣 If you want to reach our audience of 10,000+ DTC store owners, email [email protected] or set up call here 

#3 - 🤔 Shoppers still iffy about buying on social media

📰 TL;DR - According to this survey, more than half of social media users in the US are skeptical about buying products directly from social media. Trust is the biggest issue, even for younger shoppers. They worry about low-quality and counterfeit products. Security is another concern, with 47% saying they worry about lack of privacy and data safeguards. The lack of clarity on returns and refunds is also big, with 46% saying so. Other issues include a lack of reviews and rating, and the lack of regulation for homemade products.

💡 Insight - In a nutshell, this really sums up why social commerce has been so slow to catch on in the US. TikTok Shop may be poised to change this, though. The ability to have reviews in video form and affiliate and influencer options lends some greatly needed social proof. Also, TikTok is already used and trusted by many. Where it fails is on the quality side. As soon as TikTok Shop was born, a ton of verging-on-scammy brands signed up to sell cheap goods and knockoffs, and TikTok has struggled to keep on top of them. It may take some time before it all settles down, depending on whether TikTok is prepared to change the game.

➡️ You can read the article here...

#4 - 🛠️ Things worth checking out

🎄 HOLIDAYS - There have been a lot of surveys about holiday spending and this one shows a bunch of people will only spend $100 or less.

🎁 BUT ALSO - Another survey shows that as people buy gifts, they’ll also buy themselves a little something.

🥽 AR - Google is expanding its AR offerings, so beauty brands in particular will have some pretty cool features to play with.

😎 SOCIAL MEDIA - Here’s a list of trend predictions for social media marketing in 2024.

🚫 ANTI-SHOPPING - The NYT published this op-ed about the harms of New York City’s online shopping habits.

#5 - 📈 How to use Google Trends

📰 TL;DR - Here’s a handy guide to using Google Trends to tap into seasonal and other trends. Google Trends in an SEO tool that looks at search volume, so that makes it a handy resource to pinning down of-the-moment trends on commerce. This shows three ways its useful — to find niches, to find relevant product categories, and for keyword research. The tips come from marketing experts and walk you through each use case.

💡 Insight - I’ve always thought Google Trends is such an underrated tool. If you’re a dropshipper, I especially think it is useful for finding the latest trends and quickly pivoting to offer those products. You could basically build a whole business around doing just that. Yes, this is only one tool that should be in your SEO tech stack, but it’s a good one!

➡️ You can read the article here...